Getting Linux Help

How to use Linux man pages

Type "man command" where command is the name of the command you need help with. Once you are in the man page:

Type "Q" anytime to quit.
Type <space> to see the next page.

You can use the keyword function in man. To find commands that deal with dns, type "man -k dns". A listing of all commands system calls and other items that have the word "dns" in their name or short description is given.

man -k dns \| grep domain		Search man pages for occurrences of "dns" and "domain".
man 5 crontab		See the man page in section 5 on crontab rather than the page in section 1.

To print a man page type "man name | lpr -P".

How to use info pages

There is a tutorial in the info pages that you can use to learn the commands. I recommend that before using info pages, you do at least a quick tour by taking the tutorial. Take notes and keep them handy when using the info pages. You may use the info pages by typing "info command" where command is the name of the command you need information about. To begin the tutorial, type "info", and look for the help section. Some of the basic info commands are listed below.

h		Take the help tutorial
<SPC>		To move down (see more text) on a screen
<del> or Backspace		To page up the screen
b		To move to the top of a screen
n		To move to the next node (text on a particular topic)
p		To move to the previous node
d		To move to the main directory node
l		To move to the last node you were at. Retraces where you were.
<CTRL>L		Refresh the screen
m		Show a menu of nodes you can move to
	<CTRL>g	Cancel menu selection
	name	Type node name or Ctrl-g to cancel after typing "m" for menu
u		To move back to the menu you were at. Use this command after making a menu selection to get back to the last menu from which you made a selection.
?		Show available commands.

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